Point-Counterpoint. Is extreme racism a mental illness?

The American Psychiatric Association has never officially recognized extreme racism (as opposed to ordinary prejudice) as a mental health problem, although the issue
was raised more than 30 years ago. After several racist killings in the civil rights era, a group of black psychiatrists sought to have extreme bigotry classified as a mental disorder. The
association's officials rejected the recommendation, arguing that because so many Americans are racist, even extreme racism in this country is normative—a cultural problem rather than an indication
of psychopathology.

The psychiatric profession's primary index for diagnosing psychiatric symptoms, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), does not
include racism, prejudice, or bigotry in its text or index. [fn1] Therefore, there is currently no support for including extreme racism under any diagnostic category. This leads psychiatrists to
think that it cannot and should not be treated in their patients.

To continue perceiving extreme racism as normative and not pathologic is to lend it legitimacy. Clearly, anyone who scapegoats a whole group of people and seeks to
eliminate them to resolve his or her internal conflicts meets criteria for a delusional disorder, a major psychiatric illness.Read more

Is Racism an Illness? Time Magazine online

Some psychiatrists believe that racism is a mental disorder, but medicalizing social ills gets us no closer to a solution

Is racism an illness? Psychiatrists and psychologists are debating the issue. The forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Personality Disorders, due for publication in
August 2012, willincludea chapter on identifying and assessing pathological bias. This is the form of racism that could lead supremacists to violently and randomly maim or massacre those of another race.
Meanwhile, a team of British psychologists recently announced they had stumbled upon a secondary use for Propranolol, a commonly prescribed medication for high blood pressure. They claim it could
cure implicit bias, or the form of racism that can even occur in people "with a sincere belief in equality." Scientists believe the discovery can be explained by the fact that implicit racism is
fundamentally founded on fear, and the drug acts both on nerve circuits that govern automatic functions, such as heart rate, and the part of the brain involved in emotional responses.Read more

Every nation has a creation myth, or origin myth, which is the story people are taught of how the nation came into being. Ours says the United States began with
Columbus's so-called "discovery" of America, continued with settlement by brave Pilgrims, won its independence from England with the American Revolution, and then expanded westward until it became
the enormous, rich country you see today.

That is the origin myth. It omits three key facts about the birth and growth of the United States as a nation. Those facts demonstrate that White Supremacy is
fundamental to the existence of this country.Read

On the dayBennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to
the curb...because he didn’t pay a $134 property tax
bill.

60 Minutes' Steve Kroft Talks To Carl HiaasenIn a little less than a
century, the state of Florida has been transformed from a largely uninhabited swamp to the fourth-largest state in the union. And no one has written about that transformation more successfully than
Carl Hiaasen.

Carl Hiaasen on Florida:

"The Sunshine State is a paradise of scandals teeming with drifters, deadbeats, and misfits drawn here by some dark primordial
calling like demented trout. And you'd be surprised how many of them decide to run for public office."

In 1902, 140,000 miners went on strike, wanting higher pay, shorter work hours, and better housing.....Roosevelt...use[d] the military to run the mines in the "public
interest". The mining companies...accepted the demands of the UMW...more﻿﻿

Presidential Library and Museum

Pro labor: Labor is prior to, and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first
existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much higher consideration.Abraham
Lincoln pro labor quote﻿

Todayeconomic slaveryhas many people indebt chains. Economic or debt slavery ismore efficientfor its masters than the slavery of the Old South. Debt slaves must
feed, house and clothe themselves. Thedebt slave masters, thebanks,credit card companies, and even student loan providers, all rely upon the courts and justice system for enforcement of debt. When economic slaves can’t pay back their debt, they are told to get a second job. Or a third job.

Meanwhile, when thewell-connected mastersof economic slaves get in a financial bind, and
bring our economy to the brink of collapse, they call on politicians in Washington, DC for bailouts.Bankers don’t get second
or third jobs, they get million-dollar bonuses.

Theeconomic slave mastershave access to the best lawyers, sympathetic judges, and sheriff’s
deputies ready to haul the debt slave to court, or throw him and his family out of their
home and into the street. Does anyone see a problem with thisscenario? Where is the John Brown for today’sdebt slaves?﻿

The State Department's top spokesman resigned Sunday, three days after criticizing the Pentagon for its treatment of [Manning]...P.J. Crowley, the assistant secretary of State for public affairs, told a group at [MIT]...that the Pentagon's treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning was "ridiculous and stupid and
counterproductive." His comments were made public by a blogger who attended the session.More here, and Politico, andThe Washington
Post

FORTY years ago today, The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, a seminal moment not only for freedom of the press but also for the role of
whistle-blowers — like Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the papers to expose the mishandling of the war in Vietnam — in defending our democracy.Read more﻿﻿

Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the US Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in
Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable.Read
more﻿

"I really don't like the term 'PTSD,’” Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Shay told PBS' "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" in 2010. "He says the diagnostic
definition of "post-traumatic stress disorder" is a fine description of certain instinctual survival skills that persist into everyday life after a person has been in mortal danger — but the
definition doesn't address the entirety of a person's injury after the trauma of war. "I view the persistence into civilian life after battle," he says, "... as the simple or primary
injury." Dr. Shay on YouTube

Dr. Shay has his own name for the thing the clinical definition of PTSD leaves out. He calls it "moral injury" — and the term is catching on with both the VA and the
Department of Defense.

Moral injury, Dr. Shay says, can happen when "there is a betrayal of what's right by someone who holds legitimate authority in a high-stakes situation."read more

The Marine Corps, the most male of the armed services, is taking its first steps toward integrating women into war-fighting units, starting with its infantry officer
school at Quantico, Va., and ground combat battalions that had once been closed to women.

Stars and Stripes exists to provide independent news and information to the U.S. military community, comprised
of active-duty, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many Department of Defense authorized news outlets, only Stars and Stripes is guaranteed First Amendment privileges
that are subject to Congressional oversight.﻿ Go to the website

Our motto: "FIGHTING FOR THE TRUTH. . .EXPOSING THE CORRUPT" is our battle cry! We go after, not only pompous brasshats and as COL. David Hackworth so ably put it -
the "perfumed princes" like Gen. Wesley Clark - but Gestapo-like MP's, CID, NIS, OIS and other alphabet agency "bully boys" who ignore the Constitution of the United States and the right to Due
Process.﻿

Major Heather Penney recounts the drama in the skies after District of Columbia Air National Guard pilots scrambled to intercept incoming hostile planes. She
describes why F-16’s initially took off from Andrews Air Force Base unarmed – and what she was prepared to do to bring down a plane piloted by terrorists. And she recounts how later that day she
helped escort President Bush and Air Force One back to Andrews Air Force Base.﻿ C-Span
Interview

Information on this website is a free public service. While the information on this site deals with legal issues, it does not constitute
legal advice. If you have specific questions related to information available on this site, you are encouraged to consult an attorney who can investigate the particular circumstances of your
situation.

Due to the rapidly changing nature of the law and our reliance on information provided by outside sources, this website does not warranty or guarantee the accuracy or
availability of the content on this site or on other sites to which we link.

In no event will this website be held liable to any party for any damages arising in any way out of the availability, use, reliance on or inability to use this website
or any information provided by or through this website, or for any claim attributable to errors, omissions or other inaccuracies in, or destructive properties of any information provided by or
through, this website.

Neil J. Gillespie:
1. Does not give legal advice.2. Not a lawyer.3. Not an attorney.4. Not licensed to practice law.5. Did not go to law school.

______________________

Seven Year Anniversary - YouSue.org to NoSue.org

Seven years ago I started the Justice Network with the domain name YouSue.org. This name was chosen in the spirit of YouTube, the video-sharing website that
empowered ordinary people to produce and share video.

Through this website I have met folks from all over the country. Some of their stories are profiled here. Many have reached the conclusion that America’s justice system is broken.

The official Justice Network Internet address is now NoSue.org. This reflects the sad truth that for most Americans the justice system is broken, just a parody of justice. Reform American courts or
avoid them. Your life, health and wealth is at risk. But don’t just take my word, listen to the experts on this site.

The stories, images, and videos on this website are in the public
domain, or featured here under the fair use doctrine if copyrighted. I claim no credit for images posted on this site unless noted. If there is an image on this site that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear, E-mail with a link to the image and it will be removed.